Chinese people and Classical Music - Essay Example

The speech: Introduction: Music has been one of the most essential parts of art and culture in the world for centuries. The history reveals that the people belonging to ancient civilisations were lovers of music and dance, and they invented and applied various musical instruments for recreational and amusement purposes. The purpose of my research is to find out the factors that have an influence upon the association of the young Chinese generation with the old and classical Chinese music. It is an established fact that in order for a nation to excel, it is imperative that the experiences and traditions of the past are remembered. Music is one of the most fundamental elements of the culture and reflects the various trends which are typical of a nation. And when it comes to China that is for sure one of the oldest civilizations of the world, carrying out research in this area seems even more reasonable because of the fact that China is viewed as the pioneer in the fields of music, sculpture, art and poetry, and the Chinese have introduced divergent forms of music in the history specially during the Zhou and Han regimes, which won applause and popularity in different areas of the world. Having said this, the significance of the topic can easily be estimated. This is principally a qualitative research. The methodology was based on such research tools as interviews, desk study and brainstorming. As you can see on the poster, I started my research on the association of the youth of China with the Classical music of the past in two ways. First, I started to study and analyze the research conducted by various scholars in the past in the same area. I believe it is always a good idea to refer to the history of literature about the areas of knowledge you want to explore. For this purpose, I tried my best to work out all related researches from the past and somehow, I managed to lay my hands on quite a lot of the required stuff. This not only provided me with useful information about the topic of my research but also drew my attention towards various aspects of this topic that were not in my mind when I opted to conduct my research on this topic in the start. My second goal was to understand the prevailing research and development in the field of music in China. I believe music has always been an integral part of a high quality educational system. Therefore, I started off with studying literature in general and the prevailing educational system in China in particular. Chinese youth has still got a strong association with their Classical music because of a number of factors that control this association which will be discussed with the findings of my research shortly. In addition to the research available on the subject from the history, I also carried out a lot of research on the internet and studied a lot of sites that provided relevant information. I also interviewed quite a lot of students of the schools that I visited and asked them if they felt associated with the Chinese Classical music in any way. Their response was gained and the results thus derived will be explained now under the heading of “findings”. It was nice to learn as a result of carrying out this research that almost all students I interviewed valued Classical music a lot and showed respect towards it because they considered it an integral part of the Chinese culture. However, this fact can not be overlooked that a vast majority of young Chinese are inclined towards bringing a revolution and emphasize that the traditional music be mingled with Western music in order to achieve a perfect combination that goes with the changing mood of the modern world. A lot of Chinese students, when interviewed, expressed their wish to see the West influenced Chinese music as a part of their course in schools. Young Chinese are quite influential and convincing, and justify their wish with reasonable arguments. They see Westernization of the Classical Chinese music as an effort to keep up with the rest of the world and to make the Chinese music internationally recognized. Some students expressed that it is their hobby to play Classical music in the Western style, and enjoy mixing the two in different ways. When asked what factors played a key role in keeping the old Classical music popular among the young Chinese, almost all of them referred to the mobile ring-tones, internet and general music studies as the key elements that have played a big role in keeping their interest in the Classical Chinese music alive. With this I come to the end of my presentation. Thankyou very much for your cooperation. References: delineo-communication.posterous.com, 2010. “Delineo communication”. Available at: http://delineo-communication.posterous.com/?tag=kreativit%C3%A4t. [Accessed: 20 July 2010]. Kirman, P. E., 2001. “"What are some defining characteristics of Chinese classical music that you convey in your music?"”. Available at: http://www.philmultic.com/liufang/interviews/world_music.html. [Accessed: 20 July 2010]. janeconstant.tripod.com, 2002. “Research tips”. Available at: http://janeconstant.tripod.com/. [Accessed: 20 July 2010]. Read More